Numbers 36:6

6 This is God's command to Zelophehad's daughters: They are free to marry anyone they choose as long as they marry within their ancestral clan.

Numbers 36:6 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 36:6

This is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the
daughters of Zelophehad
Concerning this affair relative to them; the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases the words,

``not for the generations that rise up after the division of the land, but for the daughters of Zelophehad;''

as if this order only respected them, or what might happen before the land was divided, but not after; and this is the general opinion of the Jewish writers; but it seems, that as the following law not only concerns them, but all heiresses, so all such after as well as before the division of the land, since the reason of it holds good after as before:

saying, let them marry to whom they think best;
whom they like best, who are most acceptable to them; as it was reasonable they should, and not have such forced upon them, whose persons were disagreeable to them:

only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry;
they were to marry not only such as were of the tribe of Manasseh, but of their father's family in that tribe; they could only marry into the family of the Hepherites; see ( Numbers 26:32 Numbers 26:33 ) .

Numbers 36:6 In-Context

4 And then when the Year of Jubilee comes for the People of Israel their inheritance will be lumped in with the inheritance of the tribe into which they married - their land will be removed from our ancestors' inheritance!"
5 Moses, at God's command, issued this order to the People of Israel: "What the tribe of the sons of Joseph says is right.
6 This is God's command to Zelophehad's daughters: They are free to marry anyone they choose as long as they marry within their ancestral clan.
7 The inheritance-land of the People of Israel must not get passed around from tribe to tribe. No, keep the tribal inheritance-land in the family.
8 Every daughter who inherits land, regardless of the tribe she is in, must marry a man from within her father's tribal clan. Every Israelite is responsible for making sure the inheritance stays within the ancestral tribe.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.